THE DELIBERATE BUSINESS DIAGNOSTIC
Six numbers your business
has never shown you.
Three actions to fix
what’s actually wrong.
One three-hour session. A written report within 48 hours. And a clear picture of why your business is costing you more time and energy than it should — with the three most important things to change, in priority order.
$750
WHAT THE SESSION SURFACES
Most business owners are flying blind on the numbers that actually matter
Revenue you already know.
The six figures below – the ones that explain why the business feels harder than it should – most owners have never seen clearly laid out together. The diagnostic calculates all six.
1. Your real effective hourly rate
Not what you invoice. What you actually earn per hour of your life when every hour worked – admin, firefighting, chasing payments, managing people – is included.
Most owners find this number is lower than they expected.
2. Hours per week lost to work that isn’t yours
A breakdown of where your time actually goes versus where it should. This tells you precisely how many hours a week you’re doing work someone else could handle – and what that’s costing you.
Typically 8 to 15 hours per week for established owners.
3. Your real gross margin
Not the top-line number. The actual margin once your time is properly costed — and whether that margin holds when staff deliver versus when you do. Many owners discover they’re scaling a broken model.
The gap between these two figures is often the whole problem.
4. How much of your week you actually control
The ratio of planned time to reactive time — what you govern versus what governs you. A business running above 40% reactive isn’t under control. It’s responding to itself.
Above 40% reactive is a structural problem, not a personal one.
5. Whether your revenue will get you to “enough”
Your actual “enough” figure — defined in the session — mapped against your current revenue trajectory. Not theory. A direct answer to whether the business is on track to produce what you need, or whether the structure has to change before it can.
Most owners have never defined “enough.” Almost none have checked the trajectory.
6. Your growth ceiling
Whether your current structure can grow beyond its present size without requiring more of your time — or whether you’ve already hit the ceiling and don’t know it yet.
If everything runs through you, growth just means more hours.
HOW THE SESSION WORKS
Three hours. Structured. No fluff.
The session runs in three parts. Each one builds on the last.
00.
Pre-Session Documents
I’ll ask for three reports from your accounting system: a month-by-month profit and loss statement; and a sales report. And a list of your prices. That way I can come to the session armed and ready to go.
01.
You – before the business
The first thirty minutes is about what you actually built this for. What you wanted your life to look like. What it looks like now. What you’re not willing to trade. This sets the lens that every finding in the next two hours is measured against. Without it, the diagnostic is just a business review. We need to know the ‘why’ to make informed discussions.
02.
The diagnostic itself
A structured audit across three areas: where your time is going, whether the financial model is working the way it should, and what’s draining your energy. I review your P&L, your sales data, and your pricing structure before we meet. The session is a conversation, not a questionnaire – but it follows a precise framework that’s been developed to surface the real problems, not just the visible ones.
03.
Three actions, in order of impact
Not ten priorities. That’s too much and you’ll make no progress. Not a general improvement plan. The three highest-leverage changes in your specific business, that we’ve brainstormed together, ranked by impact, with a concrete first step on each. You leave knowing exactly what to do, and in what order.
What arrives in your inbox within 48 hours
- All six diagnostic numbers, calculated and explained.
- The key misalignment patterns identified across the three audits
- The three highest-leverage actions in full – what each is, why it made the top three, the first physical step, and the expected impact on your time, money, and energy
- A note on what didn’t make the top three and where it fits in the longer picture
WHO IS THIS FOR
This works for one kind of owner
The diagnostic is built for established professional services businesses — typically three to ten years in — where the revenue is there but the business is running the owner more than the owner is running the business.
- You’re making money and keeping clients, but the business takes more from you than it gives back
- You’ve been meaning to fix two or three things for over a year but haven’t — because everything else is more urgent
- You can’t take a week off without something falling over — and you know that’s a structural problem, not a personal failure
- You want specific answers about your specific business, not a framework seminar or a generic improvement checklist
- You’re willing to be honest about the numbers and the situation — because that’s what makes the work actually useful
INVESTMENT
$750. One Session
Real Answers.
The session runs approximately two to three hours via Zoom (3 hours maximum).
The written report arrives within 48 hours of the session. Before we meet, you’ll send me three documents: a P&L by month for the last 12 months, a sales report by period, and your current pricing systems. That’s what lets us get into the real work immediately instead of spending the session gathering information.
If you proceed to the Deliberate Business Architecture – the six-month structured engagement – the $750 you paid for the diagnostic credits in full toward that engagement. The diagnostic isn’t a sales pitch. It’s the work. But for most owners, it also makes the decision about what to do next very clear.
Ready to see the numbers?
Book the diagnostic directly below. Or if you’d prefer a fifteen-minute call first, use the discovery call link.
(See the website’s terms and conditions and business coaching agreement for full terms.)